Hidden and Sought
by Momosportif
Summary: For all the practical Tyki Lavi fangirls who fiercely enforce their love but can't find a reasonable way for them to get together. Explosive projectiles,koi,secrets,Kanda Yu,potential bondage and possibly romance. Please enjoy.
1. Encounter

The wind was still blowing hard over his body five minutes after the explosion. Shrapnel and bricks thudded deafeningly to Earth, bouncing slightly in a slow motion giant scale mockery of rain. Amazingly enough, he had yet to be crushed by any of the falling debris and laid almost peacefully in his state of unconsciousness, face down before the lone standing wall he'd slammed against after the initial blast. The black of his uniform seemed gray, nearly khaki, from the tawny dirt floated and deposited on it by the fiercely whipping winds. In fact, the shadow solidifying through the clouds of swirling dust was much darker by contrast, save for a slim white-gloved hand that extended to lift a clump of dust covered hair from his face.

"And what have we here?"

* * *

Color.

He winced slightly and felt the muscles in his eyelids twitch involuntarily again, more fully open this time.

Colors.

And again.

Blue. _Sky_.

Again.

Dark. _Trees._

The nervous system chugged, slowly up the slope to full awareness.

Coolness at his back. He managed to close his fist.

_Grass_.

He kept his eyes open after one more flutter.

Blue. _Sky_.

Dark._ Trees._

Person. _What?_ Person…person…person, person, personpersonpersonperson,

"What!?" Consciousness exploded throughout his senses with such force that he fell back to the ground as soon as he tried to sit up.

"I'm bringing home a baby bumblebee, won't Earl-samma be so proud of me? I'm bringing home a baby bumblebee-"

"Ouch!" he winced trying to rub his head and realizing his wrist was tied on a lead, attached to a nearby tree.

"He stung-eh?" Yellow eyes cut back towards him. "Oh!" Tyki Mikk turned, standing shin-deep in a small creek, koi fish thrashing in one hand, to face Lavi, splayed unceremoniously near the tree he was tethered to. "Good morning, sleeping beauty!" He turned back to the creek, leaning over the water with a hungry look in his eyes, free hand hovering over the swiftly moving water.

_What the…_

Splash!

The hand and much of the Noah it belonged to disappeared in a spray of water.

"Oh! Drat!" Tyki frowned, following the retreat of his prey downstream with his eyes.

… _hell_?

Lavi stared agape at the spectacle before him.

_Well… I guess since he's busy…_

Not one to idle in the presence of evil, Lavi quickly ran a systems check of his body and, with a quick backwards glance of incredulity, began to inch around the tree, grabbing a sharp looking rock on the way.

"Whoops!"

He jumped, whipping his head around. Tyki was sucking his finger and shaking a now sodden arm, glaring reproachfully at his captive fish. "No biting!"

Lavi exhaled, relief flooding him as he realized he had not yet been noticed.

"Okay…" he pressed his wrist and bond rope against the root of the tree and commenced with hacking at the rope with his rock, fervently praying the soft wood would deaden any thumping noises sufficiently. Lavi's eyes flashed up and down from the not-quickly-enough fraying fibers to the tree trunk through which he could imagine the Noah standing in the water, head turning towards him with a menacing grin each time he looked up. "Aaah…" his heartbeat urged his frenzied pounding to keep pace.

Crsh!

Lavi held his once bound wrist in his free hand and twisted it, rubbing circulation back to a consistent flow. The severed lead hung limply behind him as Lavi lost no time in turning due-away-from-the-Noah and scrambling away as speedily as possible.

"Ah, no, I'm afraid that won't do," he lurched forward as his movement stopped at his neck courtesy of a hand on the back of his shirt.

So it had not been as easy as it had seemed, he had not expected it would, it would not be a set back.

Tyki blinked down at the suddenly non-resisting jacket that had (in the moments before he'd switched his gaze to his fish still in his hand) contained his captive exorcist. "Eh? Aah…" he shook his head and began casually walking through the bushes into the small forest of trees, as a frustrated parent would if apprehending a child found committing a frequent offense. Tyki stopped after five or so paces, finding himself in a clearing with shrubbery creating ideal coverage for fleeing fugitives, such as Lavi, who indeed was taking advantage of the foliage. Tyki put one hand on his hip, holding the now weakly but desperately flailing koi away from his body and, smiling in quite the snobbish condescending manner so befitting of his features, called, "Olie olie oxen free!" Lavi was behind him, having planned to circle back towards the stream, as that seemed the most disorienting route of escape. He paused at the call and looked back into the clearing between twiggy limbs and leaves at Tyki's back.

This man was not the most knowledgeable Noah in the brood.

Not that that mattered, though it did make things easier, the main goal here was to get back with his fellow exorcists and away from Tyki and the potential harm that came with the name of anyone or thing under the Earl's control. Shortly, Lavi was back to the stream and, after checking for signs of persual, across it and straight into captivity for the final time. A dark hand was protruding from a tree to his right and had clamped down around his neck. Lavi gripped fingers encircling his throat and grappled with them for no more than half a second before the fingers melted into his flesh and he froze as the strange sensation of one's spinal cord being touched burst up to his brain.

"Ih!"

"Stop. Now. As much as I _do_ love hide and seek," Tyki's head with mocking grin and shoulder's appeared, "now is not the time nor the place to partake in such games. Agreed?" The Noah stood outside the dogwood now, fish finally limp in his hand. Lavi glared at his patronizing stare but didn't dare do anything else. "Oh, right. Can't exactly nod when your spinal cord's constrained," the dark hand formed again as it oozed from his own neck.

_Damn._

Tyki brushed his curly hair back to lie flat on top of his head, letting his eyes shut and head fall forward.

_Damn!_

Lavi desperately lunged forward, all rationality abandoning him. He fell flat down due to a foot smoothly slid into his path as Tyki lifted his head with a toss and let his eyes open slowly to gaze down at the fallen exorcist.

"Not the brightest Bookman on the shelf, are we?" Lavi winced as a bare heel dug into the small of his back, pressing just harder than necessary to make his statement of triumph. He scowled into the miniature jungle of grass drowning in the shadow of his own head and wished to be unconscious again. Nothing was adding up. He shouldn't be alive and able to be unable to add things up, that was the first thing, and the second thing, the Noah shouldn't have been around because he'd seen them all leave right before the explosion, every single-

…. _No. I'd counted. I remember 1, 2, 3… 4… 5… damn… damn… he's six, two girls, the big guy, and the twins, damn._ Lavi let his resolve to escape die for the moment and decided to lie low and wait for more information because he _was_ alive (at least for now) and that meant he probably had some value attached to him. _But… how long will he need me?… _He gulped, biting the inside of his cheek as the foot was lifted from his back.

Tyki's humor evaporated instantly as he gazed down through Lavi and time to things he did not want to face presently, facts that were seeking while he was desperately hiding. A blink refocused the yellow pupils on the lax red head he, though it pained him, was in such dire need of.

_How long… _his dark hand closed around his captive's collar and hauled him upright…_will I have to depend on __this__?_ Two pairs of footfalls were deadened as they neared the stream making so much chatter just to hear itself babble. Lavi made no resistance this time as both his arms were bound together with the pieces of intact rope and the koi was dropped in the grass at his boot-clad feet. Tyki sighed, a short weary huff.

Lavi focused darkly on the suffocated fish as the villain before him, hands on hips, glared to the side. Green eyes shifted to the side and so yellow ones switched to the fish. Lavi glared down at the rope and Tyki looked up at the sky. By chance, both their natural hyper-curiosities got the better of them and Lavi, without raising his head, and Tyki, without lowering his, flashed a quick look at one another that got stuck when they found their nemesis watching.

"Hmph!"

"Well!" They both looked away hotly, flushing slightly at being caught while employing their stealthiest of sideways glances. "The nerve!" Tyki sat huffily, producing a pocketknife and commencing with skinning the fish. Heated silence. "By the way…" Tyki continued his violent cutting, "do you know where we are?" Lavi glared at his knees.

"No, Am I supposed to?" Tyki's knife slowed, then stopped.

"No… I was just wondering…" he looked up guiltily. "Because I have no idea."


	2. Seekers

"Earl-sammaaaa!"

"Jasdebi! You stop that silliness, now!"

"Earl-sammaaaaaaa!!"

"Now, Lulu, excuse- Skin! Stop those two, please! We can't afford this ruckus!"

"Earl-sammaaaaaaaaaa!!"

"Not now, Lero! Skin! Stop the twins from that fighting! Excuse me, Lulubell- Jasdero! That was a perfectly good-"

"EARL-SAMMAAAA!! What about Tyki?"

"Oh, Tyki, stop-"

Everyone froze atop the Akuma they were riding back to Edo. The Earl blinked behind his spectacles.

"Ty…" heads turned thirty different ways, "ki?"

Road sat near the front, on the level one's head, sighing and rolling her eyes.

"Oh, no… Tyki…" The Earl grabbed Lulubell's shoulders and looked behind her, moved swiftly past her to Skin whom he peered behind and in who's jacket he double checked, and leapt nimbly to the second level one on which the twins were riding and pulled their limbs, still poised to throw a shoe and jacket, up and down and left and right before putting his hands to his face and turning back to Road.

"I _tried_ to tell you," she crossed her arms aloofly and stuck her nose in the air.

"Oh, no… we left Tyki…" the Earl, hands still raised in surprise, turned back towards the masses of following akuma and shook his head. "We left Tyki-pon behind…" The other Noah risked guilty sidelong glances to one another while Road resumed pouting,

"I wanted to play when we got home, he said he'd play with me! He promised he'd-" Her words floated around the tense silence, melding into the heavy air where no one heard them, as the Earl stared through the eerily hanging horde of floating machines that doubled the steadily growing miles between he and his one missing broodling and murmured to no one in particular,

"Of all my little ones…we'd have to leave the klutz…"

* * *

"WHAT?" Lavi lunged forward, attempting to gesticulate and paying the price of sharp pain in his shoulders and elbows for forgetting he was tied up. Tyki scowled reproachfully, as if _he_ was being victimized, and flicked the knife sulkily to rid it of the scales. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN? YOU'RE HOLDING ME HOSTAGE IN THIS, THIS, this…" Lavi let his head droop and let his fury out in a short, ferocious sigh.

Neutral.

Calm.

Zen.

Be the best Bookman you can be.

Lavi glowered half-heartedly at the skinless fish as these mantras paraded through his mind, pathetic condolences but essentially wise counsels. "So you really have no idea where we are? No clue? Not even what direction you came from?"

"Well, now that _that's_ over with…" Lavi ignored this blatant insinuation in favor of gleaning possible information, "I…" Tyki, (uncharacteristically), thought before finishing his statement. "I came from over…" dark curls swayed and bounced against his dark neck as he turned to look behind himself, opposite the direction of the setting sun, "there… I think. No…" Tyki turned halfway back towards Lavi, face falling as he scanned the landscape around him. "I…"Lavi blinked dumbly at the profoundly moving expression of distress on the visage that turned back towards him, "…".

Tyki frowned down at his bare koi, shoulders slumping and pupils flitting across the grass before him as if an answer would crawl from between the blades of plush green, leaving his sentence unfinished. Luckliy for Lavi, his Bookman instincts were deeply ingrained in his subconscious and he took note of direction and orientation being a weakness of his enemy for, presently, he felt extremely sympathetic towards his much put out foe. He'd never expected any emotion save taunting hatred from the Noah.

_He just… all of a sudden… he looks so sad… _As Tyki sighed and looked to the side, the moment of understanding vanished with the corner of the sun under the tree line and Lavi remembered that he was stranded in an unknown area with an unknown enemy and without any idea (or way to guess) where his allies were ( if they _were_ at all anymore).

"So you _don't_ have any idea. Great, kay, well…" Lavi rested his head against the tree trunk and gazed up at the fading patterns of hundreds of leaves.

His stomach grumbled.

This effectively turned the silence into an awkward one and brought Tyki out of his dejected spell. He coughed in a very pointedly false manner and Lavi pulled his knees up to his chest mumbling a scarcely audible 'excuse me'.

"I'm a wee bit peckish…" Tyki stood and stretched luxuriously, swiping his meat on the way up. He glanced back and down briefly, risking a peek at his ill-tempered hostage. Lavi's throat was bare to the sky with his head tipped back and lolled to the side loose red hair hiding his eyes and his arms sagging in their suspended state. "Ooo…" Tyki's undulating sympathy-whine slipped from scarcely parted lips as he plopped himself on the smooth slope of the stream bank. "Bumble bee's not too happy…"He propped an elbow on his bent and outward-leaning knees and let the fish dangle betwixt his legs. "Maybe I should knock him out again… No, too merciful."

He turned back and squinted at the hunched shadow that was Lavi, being swallowed by the dusk-powdered evening. Tyki rotated his body back towards the stream and contemplatively began nibbling on a piece of raw fish. _Now about being stranded… he's got a point there… I could have sworn the sun went down in front of me… but then again, I was mostly travelling at night… _He abruptly halted his ponderings as his teeth came down on the fragile fish ribs. "Oh… whoops…" he glanced guiltily from the wholly consumed koi to the now wholly shrouded Lavi. "Haah…" he sighed. Such a high maintenance hostage! _If I didn't need him to parlay with I'd just let the runt starve…_Tyki huffed, annoyed as he entered the water again, pulling his rolled pants above his knees once more and pushing back his sleeves. "Here fishy, fishy, fishy!" Lavi opened his eye and squinted out at the now starlit stream and the lurking Noah.

_What… oh, God, not this again…_"Hey!"

Tyki's eyes glowed in a feline manner as he turned his head towards the bank.

"Don't do it that way, it's too late to get wet." Lavi turned his stiff neck, shaking his head.

"What? Why?" Tyki hadn't moved yet. The little yellow beacons remained trained on him.

"It gets cold at night, especially, assuming we're not far from the explosion site, in this type of climate."

"Oh… Where was the explosion site again?"

"Just come out of the water…"

"Okay… oh, uh, I ate the fish though."

Lavi was ready to cry with exasperation.

"Yeah, I watched you, get out of the water." The teeny yellow lights went out as a series of splashes and scuffles came from the finally evacuating Noah. _Of course he ate the fish…_ Lavi's stomach voiced it's emptiness once more.

"Vvvv! It _is_ cold!" Tyki melted out of the night, prancing about and rubbing his arms. "And we need to go to bed soon!"

Lavi balked.

Tyki froze.

They looked surreptitiously at one another out of the corners of their eyes. Sleep was a hurdle they'd neglected to consider during all the contemplation about location and a far more immediate issue than that of being hopelessly lost.

"I guess now would be a bad time to tell you I'm gay."

Lavi _did_ cry now.

"Haha! Just kidding!" Tyki smiled broadly at the miserable exorcist bound at his feet. "Though, keeping with your theme of practicality, it makes sense to sleep close together, sharing body heat, you know." He plopped down genially leaning across Lavi to untie his binds. "I trust you've learned your lesson about running away?" Tyki hesitated with his fingers on the second knot. Staring curiously, Lavi shook his head yes.

_Depending on how sound of a sleeper you are…_

"If you _do_ try to escape, of course I'll have to kill you."

_And then again, maybe I __have__ learned my lesson…_

Lavi winced as his numb arms dropped as dead weight to his sides and shook his shoulders a bit to improve the circulation.

"Do you have your jacket still?"

"My _coat_?"

"Yeah, whatever. Do you have it?"

"Yes. Blanket?"

"For you."

"What about yourself?" Tyki reached behind a nearby bush and produced his suit coat.

"I'm good thanks." Lavi promptly collapsed and curled up as close to the tree as possible.

"But you haven't eaten yet."

_Gaaah… _Lavi opted to ignore the hyper-talkative Noah and so remained still, cradled in two protruding root's embrace.

Tyki blinked down at him blankly.

Lavi's stomach growled again. _Dammit…_

"Hey," Lavi jolted bolt upright due to the whispering voice's proximity to the back of his neck.

"What the hell's your problem?!" Tyki leaned back, wide-eyed. "Is this some sort of psychological torture? Are you trying to deteriorate my sanity? Reduce me to a nervous wreck before you kill me?!" Lavi breathed heavily, glaring menacingly at the shell-shocked Noah in a silence broken by a sweeping and utterly idiotic smile.

"Nope! This is just the way I am!" Lavi, for the second time in less than six hours, gave up on being angry in the face of ignorance. "Just kill me now…" he muttered, falling back into his tree root bed harder than he intended to and clacking his skull quite painfully.

"Anyway!" Tyki crawled towards Lavi once more, pulling his shoulder back towards himself and forcing Lavi to face him and his-

"Food?"

"I forgot I had this!" Tyki waved an apple at the bemused exorcist. "It's yours, here."

"Uh…thanks…" Lavi sat up awkwardly, taking the offered fruit. He opened his mouth slightly before looking to Tyki for any reaction indicating that he may have poisoned it, though that would have been immensely cliché (especially considering he'd already called him Sleeping Beauty). Tyki was humming softly as he smoothed his coat out, not paying Lavi any mind. Lavi let his jaw shut. "Why are you doing this?"

"Hmmm?"

* * *

He adjusted his hat in the mirror and smoothed out his lapels. The room was full behind him but he took no notice of the spectators. He seized Relo's handle. "Why are you doing this, relo!"

"Hohoho!"

* * *

"You were mean enough before but you've softened up considerably."

"And that puts me under suspicion?"

"Well, yeah, I'd have to be as stupid as y… a rock _not_ to suspect something." Tyki smirked.

* * *

"Oh, Relo, don't screech so! Why do you think I'm going back?"

"He'll come back on his own, won't he, relo?"

"Tyki-pon? Find his own way back?" The Earl laughed again as he stepped out into the evening air.

* * *

"I decided," the Noah reclined lazily, "to be nice to you."

"Yeah, I know, but why?" Tyki rolled to his side, back facing Lavi.

* * *

"Earl-sammaaaaa!!" Road came running out the door behind him. "When will you be back?"

The tiny green read swiveled in it's large collar.

* * *

"Fine." Lavi took a bite of his apple and returned once more to his makeshift bed. Tyki turned over.

* * *

"What ever do you mean, Road?"

"Huh?"

"You are all coming with me to find your brother of course." A collective groan issued from indoors.

"Yay!" Road rushed up to stand next to the Earl. The rest of the Noah filed out, much peeved.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are," Skin muttered darkly, cracking his knuckles.

* * *

"As long as we're stuck here lost, I think we should be friends." Lavi turned around, apple in his mouth to see an extended hand. "So…friends?"

"How about civil?"

"Fine then."

They shook.


	3. Two Team Bout

Thin tendrils of acrid smoke twisted upward sluggishly until they reached the elevation at which the breeze would rush them, dancing into the nighttime sky. All eyes were on the aged dry lips that parted marginally to emit another screen of smoke that made their tear glands jumpstart instantly.

"Well, it really is up to your jurisdiction…"

"Umph."

"Err…"

Krory and Allen unintentionally exchanged tense glances as the two highly social conscious individuals cast uncomfortable looks in any direction save that of the short, laconic ancient seated before the assembly of silent Black Order members.

"Pardon?…" a very bleary Samo Han Wong repeated for the fifteenth time in the much one-sided conversation. The unfortunate Asia Branch assistant had opened the door for the rag tag passel of travel weary exorcists that had, courtesy of Allen's recommendation, made their way to his doorstep and thus been made ambassador and leader of parlay with the unanticipated arrivals.

Except that there wasn't much actual parlaying going on because one party was seemingly unwilling to participate.

Bookman paused, gazing intently out at a dust-purple dawn with heavy-lidded eyes and, for the fifteenth time in the much one-sided conversation, placed the end of his narrow pipe back between his lips.

"Umph," was all they'd gotten out of him so far.

Wong started at the sound of footsteps from behind him, loud confident footsteps that could only belong to,

"What's going on here, Wong?"

the director of the of the Asia Branch, Bak Chan himself in all his early morning glory. A few sharp words cut the tousle-headed blond off from his interrogation of his subordinate and successfully directed all heads to it's source, the still smoking Bookman who looked, for all the world as though he hadn't spoken at all. The crowd had a completely silent moment to grasp for meaning in their various states of confusion and surprise. Allen and Krory were as of yet unsure if Bookman had indeed spoken at all while Wong, Bak, and Lenalee were simply perplexed that those words had come from whom they had (although, in retrospect, it made perfect, sense). Bak was the first to recover enough to act and responded haltingly at first but then fluidly and Allen and Krory realized that Bookman had spoken in Chinese. They looked to Lenalee for a translation and she blinked a few times to revive her shocked brain before leaning over and whispering,

"Bookman said, 'I lost the little one' and Bak just asked how."

The audience of three listened as Bookman replied with the smoothness of his native-speaking conversation partner.

"He just told about the bomb at the factory we were investigating for signs of Cross… and how it was a trap and the Noah ambushed us but we still don't know who set off the bomb…"

Bak frowned and rubbed his forehead contemplatively.

"Innocence?" he asked. Bookman moved for the first time since he'd taken his seat on the cracked hunk of granite that had eroded from the outer structures of the Asia Branch centuries ago. The tiny hammer so minute in Lavi's grasp seemed nearly a usable size in the withered hand of the elder historian. The four exorcists had discovered it atop a pile of rubble in the dusty remnants of the factory's structure.

Bak nodded, brow furrowed before asking a quiet question. Without translation, Krory and Allen knew he'd inquired about whether or not he though his disciple was alive. All present held their breath, waiting for the answer to the question Wong had asked but never received a response to. In a flash of silver tipped fingers, Bookman extinguished his pipe and deposited it in the folds of his uniform.

"Damn junior," the lilliputian man slipped off his seat and turned away from the doorway and his company. For his small stature, he emanated an insane amount of power, back unquaveringly straight, stance staunch and unyielding, and body seeming to bristle with intensity. "Let them rest and then we'll be off."

Wong, this time, was the first to react and ushered the three younger exorcists indoors, glancing at Bak briefly to ensure he'd come when ready and wouldn't dally in the brisk nearly morning air. Bak hesitated, mouth slightly open in preparation to request a more direct answer to his question but decided against it and simply pushed the door open before turning and following the others.

"The Noah's lost one too. This is a two team bout of hide and seek," Bak halted and faced Bookamn who's back was still to him. "Call headquarters, please. We'll need back-up."

The supervisor nodded shortly before resuming his path. As soon as the clack of Bak's boots reached a pin-drop-loud clink, the aged exorcist let his shoulders slump and his knees give, falling back upon his debris tuffet.

He clutched the gleaming black hammer and murmured to the breaking day, "If ever you had a brain, Lavi, use it now."

* * *

"Today."

"Today?"

"Uh-huh." Lavi smirked up at the smooth, excited grin gradually illuminating Tyki's dark face.

"No way," the alleged immortal sat slowly beside the neat rows of supplies, opposite the junior Bookman leaning over them.

"I told you it was only a matter of days, don't act like it's such a big surprise, that's insulting to my exquisite cognitive and planning skills."

"Well, excuse me for showing interest," Tyki brought a hand to his heart in mock offense. Lavi's smile stretched wickedly wider and he stuck hi tongue out peevishly.

"You're excused!"

Tyki reached across the ration piles and flicked his younger captive squarely in the center of his forehead good-naturedly.

"The cheek!" he exclaimed, "you're worse than Jasdebi!"

Neither of the two men considered (though they might have if allowed to observe from outside the situation and certainly would have before their encounter) how acutely odd it was for a member of the Noah Clan to be (quite blatantly) joking or even civilly socializing with a defender of innocence. Somewhere between a handshake and a flick on the forehead, a hundred and sixty-eight hours had eroded the predictable and innate barriers that, in normal circumstances, stand formidably betwixt exorcists and the descendants of the Arc, quite a remarkable feat indeed.

Tyki had forgotten (or chose not to remember) that he'd let Lavi live to use him as a hostage in case he ran into bigger, badder fish and Lavi had selectively discarded (or possibly forgotten completely) that he was at the mercy of a cold blooded killer who clearly had reasons not to reduce him to an organ-less skin sack.

In their separate lives, they were both easy-going, fate-accepting, non-current-resisting guys and this maintained nature is probably the key to their odd fostered companionship though anyone could hazard a guess as to exactly how much the situation affected the bond as compared to how much the people did.

Regardless, the duo had pulled together for survival's sake and, after a week of scouting and gathering supplies and edible plant life, had, by Lavi's judgment, ample materials to leave the security of their position by the river and embark on a return trip to wherever they'd come from. Lavi swatted his aggressor's hand away and unnecessarily straightened a few items before forcing himself into a more serious mindset.

"Tyki!" The Noah (previously staring blankly into space) widened his eyes and snapped to attention. "Plan!" Lavi barked, squinting sternly at his frequently oblivious companion.

Tyki opened his mouth and balked, looking for all the world as though brilliance was fit to spring from his lips. Lavi titled his head to the side and raised his eyebrows expectantly, similarly parting his lips. Tyki blinked at him several times. Lavi leaned slowly closer to him, as if his proximity would threaten the correct response out of the currently frozen twenty-six year old.

"Aaaaaaaaaah…" a dull gleam began slipping over the luminous yellow eyes and the Noah's face went completely slack with a lack of comprehension. "… aaaaah… I don't remember…"

Lavi deflated, justifiably disappointed by watching seven days of hard plan reinforcing fall by the way side.

"_Tyki_!"

"Sorry! First step?"

"Tyki…" Lavi shook his head reproachfully.

"Oh, come on! No fair!" he flapped his crossed legs in frustration, "_Laaavi_! Pleeeeeeeease… I can do the important parts, just refresh me on the first step!" Lavi sighed pointedly and rolled his eye upward,

"No way. If you can't remember, you face the consequences. See if you can start backwards."

"Oh! Um," the previously put-out Noah brightened as though a switch had been flipped at the chance of redemption, "we arrive in civilization, and before that…" Lavi observed in amusement as Tyki, eyes rolled upward, counted steps out on his fingers as he mouthed them, occasionally fluttering his knees to expedite his thinking process.

For a fully-grown man, he seemed very much dependant.

The Bookman-in-training jolted as his captor exclaimed rather more loudly than necessary,

"I got it! First step: Follow the stream East until it ends."

"Yup," Lavi gazed at him lazily from his lax position, head propped on his fist, elbow resting on his left thigh. Despite the uncongratulatory-blazé- jiji approach, Tyki's level of excitement did not dissipate as he continued,

"Step two: Continue in the direction of the river, marking trees with rocks as we go to note our path and step three: record the number of days we've been traveling- that's your job- and step four: gather food when our supplies are halfway gone-that's my job." Tyki looked to Lavi for confirmation and upon receiving a vacant stare mentally retraced his recounting of the plan before exclaiming, "Oh! We get water before we leave the river. Whoops, okay…" Lavi sat up, leaning back on his hands, watching the recollection process with interest and slight awe. "So step five is repeat steps three and four if necessary, they're optional, and step six is change/adapt plan if necessary, and step _seven_ is reach civilization." Tyki fell silent for a second and then bolted upright spastically, alarming Lavi severely.

"Woah-"

"I did it!" A mildly crazy gleam sparked in his golden eyes. Lavi leaned his head back, following Tyki as he rose to his feet. "IIIIIII DID IT!!" Lavi stared as the sinister yet prevalently silly Noah performed a ridiculous victory dance, unsure of whether he should be laughing or making a run for it. "Okay, let's go!" Tyki halted his prancing abruptly and began folding the corners of his suit jacket (the makeshift rucksack accompanied by Lavi's exorcist uniform top) busily, securing it on the end of a stick before Lavi realized what was happening.

"So much for my ration piles," he muttered as Tyki frolicked to the pebble ridden edge of the stream, looking very much in place with his luggage and undershirt, causing Lavi to remember Tyki's life in his white form.

He paused to puzzle over the conundrum that was Lord Tyki Mikk: evil yet exuberant, malicious yet merry, unforgivably horrid yet undeniably helpless.

"Come ooon!" Lavi's brain shifted back from musings to reality and he focused on the singsong-shouting murderer a few yards away from him. He carefully clustered his ration piles before sealing and attaching them in the same manner as his companion's. He trotted to the riverbank and fell into step with his slightly taller journey mate and occupied himself with developing an appropriately efficient pace. A dull whap coupled with a soft impact on his shoulder caused Lavi to glance over and up at a curiously grinning Tyki, rucksack incriminatingly near his recently whacked arm.

"What?" Lavi blinked in confusion at the now more widely smirking Noah.

"You were ogling me."

"What- _what_?" Lavi's indignant glare was mingled with utter bewilderment at the spontaneity of this accusation.

"Just a few minutes ago, while I was over here and you were packing your stuff."

"Why, you-"

"You were!" Tyki shrugged as if to say "don't look at me, I can't help your perverse ways".

"Well how would you know if you weren't looking too!" Lavi scowled darkly at the all but hysterical Noah.

Tyki paused at this and looked down at the redhead with an unexpected air of respect.

"God damn," he slung his bag over the opposite shoulder, "I'm glad I caught the smart one!"

Lavi shook his head and sighed. Just when he'd finally glimpsed some hidden dimension, Tyki went and reaffirmed his linear character: a scale of simple to stupid with a midpoint of satanic.

It would, indubitably be a long and taxing trip.

* * *

Taa daa... crickets. Hem... yes, a shamefully long delay in chapter posting (along with a shamefully long delay in review responses...) It seems my procrastinating habits do not dissipate over summer break but rather intensify... Hope it hasn't been _too_ long... Props to the beloved typing demon for so promptly typing! Chu! Next chapter is the big one cringe maybe I shouldn't have mentioned that until I started it... sulks in utter failure


	4. Ready or Not

Author's Note: I debated whether or not to put this at the beginning or end... I think it will be more useful at the beginning. The song the twins sing is, as the Earl later says, a piece from the symphony Peter and the Wolf in which all the animals and people are represented by instruments. Jasdebi sings the wolf's music, I think the instrument is the horn... some deep brass instrument, you can probably find the music online if your curious. I don't know that it was written by the 1800s but I put it in anyway... I'm pretty sure it was. I chose it because it fit the mood they were in during the hunting game. Thank you for reading and enjoy! :D

* * *

"Duuh Duuh Duh Duuh," the voices started soft behind him, barely conveying the notes they intended to, "Duh Duuh Duh Duuh Duh Duh Duh Duuh," but they soon rose in a moving crescendo, "Duuh Duuh Duh Duh Duh," and now became a force that could compete with a small boys choir, "DUH DUH DUUH DU-"

"SHUT UP!!" Skin Boric breathed heavily in the startled faces of the frozen Jasdero and Debitto, seething dangerously. Debitto's headlamp drooped slightly and Jasdero's jacket slid off his shoulder. Both of their raised pistols, being carried like rifles, were lowered considerably. They blinked one after the other in quick succession, unintentionally weirding Skin out. The monster of a man turned around and stomped a few paces away, kicking at a dilapidated brick wall. The sizeable, well-dressed backside waving about a few meters away vanished as the Millennium Earl straightened in epiphany clapping his hands and exclaiming,

"Ho! Peter and the Wolf! Good choice, Jasdebi!" He applauded briefly before leaning over again and continuing to sift through warehouse debris at the site where they'd departed from Tyki.

Lulubell was occupied in a similar fashion, searching through minute wreckage while Skin was heaving large sections of brick and doing rather half-hearted searching as Road and the twins did essentially nothing or small amounts of sporadic work as they felt inclined. Round toed school shoes tastefully combined with horizontally stripped knee socks perched on a corner of the building that had half collapsed.

"That's it, put your backs into it!" Road belted, thrashing Relo about for emphasis.

"Do be careful, Road!" the Earl called without rising. Meanwhile, the twins continued their safari hunt imitation, targeting Lulubell after their failure with Noah's Rage. Disappointingly though, no sooner had they approached within fifteen meters of her, the silent woman turned and stared directly at them, lowering her sunglasses to reveal a severe and challenging expression that deterred the hunters substantially. This encouraged them to change games and they began kicking rubble around. Jasdero murmured,

"I spy… with my little eye…"

* * *

Bak frowned at the security screens paneling his tidy office, leaning back in his chair and sighing into the phone, hearing the resulting static over the dial tone. He rumpled the tassel at the back of his head impatiently, preparing to hurry through the impending conversation.

* * *

Every man, woman, and specter halted as the sound of ringing emanated from the black phone set half buried by a toppled can of office supplies and mysteriously stained forms and documents. A chance to break from mundane regularity, the much coveted escape of answering a call spurred all who heard the ring to cry,

"Phone!" and drop their papers, scrambling over piles of books, empty coffee trays, and a sea of thin sheets that overflowed from the desk. Reever, in a noble attempt to preserve sanity, clutched his papers and stood in front of the desk, commanding,

"Get back to your work! We'll tell you if it's for you!" but the mob continued until Komui, asleep at his desk, bolted upright at a smack from his section leader and picked up the receiver.

"Hello?" The eagerly converging forces again hesitated, waiting for some indication of the caller's identity. "Ah! Baka Bak!" Komui exclaimed delightedly. The dejected science department members trudged back to gather their forms as the supervisor prattled on in fast-paced Chinese. Reever set his paper stack down in front of Komui carefully, listening for the few phrases he knew and to the tone in an attempt to detect the mood of the conversation which changed abruptly, inciting him to look up. Komui was holding the phone with both hands, looking down in concentration as Bak's voice issued steadily and gravely from it. His eyes flicked up to Reever's and then down again and he interrupted with a question, was answered, and then appeared quite alarmed. He slid a hand over the speaking end and said quietly, "Reever, who do we have to dispatch?" The anticipatory subordinate produced a clipboard from a cave of signed data sheets and flipped through a couple pages.

"We've got options…" he answered running a finger down the list of names for exorcists presently in the building. Komui shifted the speaker back up to his mouth and updated his fellow director who responded shortly and, judging by a click and subsequent buzz, hung up. Komui followed suit and extended a hand for the clipboard. He adjusted his glasses and swiped a few stray hairs behind his ears, explaining in a consternated exhale,

"Apparently we have an MIA who vanished in pursuit of _the_ MIA, but thankfully only one, and the rest of the group requires back up." Reever moved around the desk to look over the supervisor's shoulder.

"Who is it?"

"Lavi… an interesting loss since he's not really a permanent responsibility. However, Bookman and the others are already searching for him so we ought to extend our support."

"Why? Aren't there- what," Reever counted the squad mentally, "four of them? That's two groups of two."

"Oh, I- a Noah's missing too, of course, so doubtless the Earl will be on the hunt, it's not a question of numbers." The section leader ran a tired hand over his face.

"So we should definitely send…" Komui's finger slowed on its run up the list and rested on a name near the top.

* * *

"Do you know any marching songs?" Lavi considered the question as he scanned the under brush for a wise place to step.

"Uhh… no."

"Shoot," Tyki tilted his head back and gazed at the forest canopy, patches of midday sky blue through clusters of translucent, sun-illuminated leaves.

"Where are you from, Lavi?"

"Dunno," the junior bookman stepped around a tree trunk with care. He spared a glance at the Noah before redirecting his eyes to his foliage-littered path. "You're Portuguese, right?"

"Yeah…" Tyki looked down from the shielded clouds, "how'd you know? Did I tell you that before?"

"Nope," Lavi shrugged as he hefted his rucksack to the opposite side, "it's my job to know things." The two bumped slightly as they stepped, paying the collision no mind.

"That's kind of creepy… do you know how old I am?"

"Twenty-six," Lavi replied without thinking.

"Do all the exorcists know this? How tall am I?"

"You're… 188 centimeters," Lavi's eye rolled upward in thought temporarily, "and, no, I don't know that because I'm an exorcist. I could tell them though, only if they ask."

Tyki paused for a moment, unnoticed by the ever walking-preoccupied redhead.

"Wait… then why do you know it?"

"Huh?" Lavi came to a stop at the sound of his companion's voice from behind.

"If it's not because you're an exorcist, why do you know it?" The increasingly exhausted eighteen year-old squinted, incomprehensively at the blinking Noah.

"… I'm a bookman…"

"OH! Yeah, yeah, yeah!" Tyki clapped a hand to his head, bunching up his hair. Lavi sighed a feeble laugh as he turned to continue walking, shaking his head. "I totally knew that! I called you a bookman a looong time ago, before we left, right when you woke up," Tyki caught up to his fellow traveler. In two bouncy steps, resuming his inspection of the shrouded heavens. They continued in relative silence for a few minutes.

"Um, the exact usage was 'not the brightest bookman on the shelf' I believe…" Lavi smirked, tossing his head forward to allow his hair to hide his smile. Tyki glanced down out of the corner of his eyes nervously, wondering if he'd upset the shorter man to his left.

"Yeah… something like that I was thinking…"

"Hee!" Lavi thwacked Tyki's side with his arm after an awkward silence and turned a smiling face to his companion, "Got ya! You thought I was mad, didn't you?" Tyki looked down with his familiar mock offended expression,

"Well, yeah!"

"Heehee!" The two faced forward once more. "That was actually an impressive joke for you, now that I think on it," Lavi continued.

"I have my moments," the Noah replied aloofly, out-stepping the junior bookman with his lengthier strides, knowing it peeved him. He looked back, grinning broadly in a way that showed his awareness of his misdeeds which was received by a pout and an increase of speed, and concluded in Tyki slowing back to an amble.

They walked in amiable company, each to his own thoughts for several paces.

"So… a bookman… Do you know all the stuff you know about me about all the Noah?"

"Yeah, pretty much. It's basic statistics… We don't know your powers or anything until we encounter you but we sure as hell don't forget them when we do. For example," Tyki leaned his head sideways, towards his informant in interest, "an example of how we gain information and such, I know a lot about you from our run-in on the train; you have friends, a white form, you work in a mine, you generally tend to smoke Parliaments, you're bilingual at least, you're afraid of…" Lavi swallowed and looked bemusedly over at Tyki for a brief moment before focusing once more on the ground. "Well, you get it. We have to notice things and remember them, really detailed, seemingly superfluous things. We're responsible for getting all the crap like in those huge, advanced university textbooks that no one really reads. It's interesting." He fell silent with odd haste and folded his hands behind his head, rucksack slid between a shoulder and forearm and held by the opposite hand, with a note of finality.

"Hm." Tyki shrugged indifferently. "Sounds kind of boring."

"It can be," Lavi returned plainly. "Tomorrow's history is what we make it today." The pair trekked on and let the birds and creek do the talking.

"The ants go marching one by one, hurrah… hurrah…" Lavi glanced sideways at the scarcely singing Noah. "The ants go marching one by one… too high…" Lavi occupied his gaze once more with his feet's procession. "Hem… The ants go marching one by one!" Lavi jumped at the booming, baritone voice beside him, laden with operatic vibrato and in a minor key. "Ah ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha HA! You should have seen your face, Lavi, aaah," Tyki gripped his shoulder, countenance the image of mirth at its richest and then threw his head back gleefully, laughing mightily.

"God, you're _such_ a joker!" The startled adolescent gave a shaky smile, recouping from his initial shock fractionally. In the face of Tyki's incessant heckling, he too chuckled a bit.

"Did I look like this?" Lavi widened his eyes, opened his mouth slightly and lifted his brows in a distressed manner. Tyki composed himself long enough to regard the countenance replication and, upon seeing it, exclaimed,

"Oh my gosh, _yes_! Exactly like that! Shoot, now I'm going to start-" the older man ended his statement through his actions, bursting into a new storm of laughter, letting his bag drop to the ground and tightening his grip on Lavi's shoulder due to natural muscle response. The way Tyki laughed, outwards, from his trembling abdomen up into his helplessly shaking torso to his upheld shoulders to his flung back head and wide open mouth, made it impossible for Lavi not to join in. He laughed just the opposite way, inside, curling his back and shoulder forward, keeping a grin to shut the laughter in, and accordingly quivering as though convulsing with every peal of unheard mirth. They, due to the vigor with which they were now guffawing, were forced to halt, Lavi leaning his tailbone against a thin tree and propping his arms on his bent knees while Tyki stood facing him, one hand on his now aching stomach while the other was still clinging to his friend and enemy and all together neither of those at all. His Lavi.

It took a full change in position of the angle of the sun before the two could reach any state resembling calm. They'd both felt inclined to sit once the laughter's apex had been reached and the intensity was declining, which accounted for their present locations: splayed on the forest floor and slumped against a tree. They took several minutes to re-associate their lungs with oxygen after the last random heckles had been voiced and after this period of lull, Lavi straightened and said with the least laugh-provoking smile he could manage, "I think we'd better stop for lunch." Tyki stretched his way into a sitting position and returned a formal, polite, anti-laughter-inspiring grin.

"Might as well. I'd liiiike," the Noah crossed his legs, staring upwards in consideration, "roasted guinea hen, please."

"Oh, most certainly," Lavi jumped in the familiar eating game, untying his rucksack and tastefully arranging a clump of herbs and nuts on a nearby leaf, "free range, of course." He bowed sitting down, flourishing his hand several times as he did so. Tyki mimed tucking a napkin into his collar and accepted the dish tactfully, remarking,

"What fine china today!"

"Only the best!" They'd started this dining embellishment on their third day together when Tyki had declared he'd never tasted better omelet in any part of France upon eating a handful of edible mushrooms Lavi had chanced upon. Lavi had replied that if he was fond of the omelet, he ought to try the pot pie and presented a bunch of nuts. Needless to say, the game had caught on quite well for its mind distracting results and they'd kept it in play for every successive meal. "I'd personally recommend," Lavi opened his sack and selected a cluster of greens, "the salad today."

"Is it fresh?" Tyki rose a single eyebrow inquisitively.

"From the garden this morning," Lavi took a bite with much relish and Tyki watched, much impressed.

"Looks like there's tart for dessert," he pointed out, plucking a single berry from his overcoat dining table and popping it into his mouth.

"Good?" the redhead looked up expectantly. Tyki closed his eyes and appeared much moved, nodding indulgently and replied,

"Very."

A few ration piles later left the duo ready to move on, so they refastened their progressively lightening satchels and resumed a steady pace in satisfied silence. Something in the mundane scenery of the forest floor sparked thoughts of Bookman in Lavi's mind. His chest felt very heavy with the probability that he was assumed dead and had so carelessly allowed himself to be abducted in a confused situation in which Bookman had no way of knowing his sole disciple's fate. He remembered abruptly that he had no way of knowing whether or not his instructor was himself alive or dead, along with his three allies. The last thing he could recall from the vacated factory was hitting a brick wall after an unexpected explosion had erupted between he and his elder and sent the flying opposite directions. The Earl and the Noah had arrived just before the blast and no blows had been exchanged, introductions only just at that. He hadn't taken the time yet to analyze who the explosive had been placed or detonated by, being constantly preoccupied with escaping the forest, but as he considered, the possibilities appeared endless and perplexing.

It could have been left and they'd simply triggered it. Jiji, or perhaps Krory or Allen or Lenalee, could have set it, though it was unlikely that any of them had been equipped with such an item, in an attempt to give the outclassed exorcists a chance to escape. Inversely, it seemed unlikely that any of the Noah would have forsaken the opportunity for a direct battle and consequently easy win over a swift long range attack that had separated them from one of their own. The clearest answer seemed that an unknown third party was involved, though Lavi could only stab at possible fillers of this role. He concluded that it would be of best advantage to wait on further dissecting the matter until more information could be provided for consideration.

As he re-assimilated the cogs of his brain to bring him back into the present day, he became aware of his name being voiced and a sable hand waving before is line of vision,

"Lavi, Lavi, Lavi…" He blinked rapidly and glanced up, speculating at how long these cries for attention had been issued. Tyki gave him a curious and apprehensive look before pointing at a spot on the forest floor that looked like any other spot.

"What?" Lavi regarded the area blankly and then its indicator whose finger traveled back at a slow pace before stating,

"The creek just ended." The slightly out of sorts brains of the duo sighed and flicked his hair out of his eyes.

"Okay… let's get a drink then and go on." Tyki smiled in a somewhat maternal way as they back tracked a meter to the swampy brook's end and queried,

"Are you afraid?" Lavi paused before drinking as they dropped to their knees and Tyki lent over to cup the fresh water.

"…Yeah," he answered with a humorless grin.

"Aw, bumblebee," he felt a strange state of comfort overcome him as dark fingers tangled in his hair and tousled it reassuringly. "We'll be okay."

* * *

"Footprints, he!"

"Footprints!"

"Footprints!"

"FOOTPRINTS!" The entirety of the Noah search party looked over at Jasdebi who opened fire on the dusty ground before them, pistols gleaming in the late afternoon sun.

"J-Jasdebi!" the Earl did a strange sort of double take before lifting his palms to his cheeks and hastening over the rubble towards them as swiftly as his somewhat stocky legs would allow him. "Stop! Stop!" The twins obliged, turning with wide, befuddled expressions as the Earl came up behind them, panting slightly after such exertion. "Oh ho!" he exclaimed in delight, and the remainder of the family slid into place behind him, peering over or around him in search of the source of elation. "Tracks! And with Tyki's shoe imprint!" Jasdero and Debitto squawked in protest as they were brought into a maudlin embrace and tears poured from beneath the Earl's circular spectacles. "Come on everyone, quickly!" he released them and began trotting off eagerly in pursuit. Road followed immediately, giggling shrilly and calling,

"Tyyyyyykiiiiiiiii!!" as the younger Noahs followed them towards a currently darkening woods.

* * *

"One, two, buckle my shoe," Allen murmured, stepping in time to the numbers and swinging his arms along with his footfalls. Krory was floating before him, cloak swishing silently against the layers of leaves and ferns upon the ground, and Lenalee was smiling at the marching Allen fondly or peering as far as she could between the trees surrounding them. Bookman solemnly brought up the rear of the fast moving troop, staring unseeingly before him and pondering the maps of the land he'd seen in the Asia Branch office. They were, judging by the nearly darkness of the wooded path, very nearly on schedule for their rendezvous with the back up forces, which was to be in the clearing where the warehouse had been.

"Five, six, pick up sticks,"

Bookman felt a small flick of urgency that occasionally swelled to an alarming intensity beat against his calm demeanor and unparalleled self-control. Too many questions needed answering at the moment for him to worry seriously, but this rationality could not quell his habitually hyperactive mind from forming possibilities regarding Lavi as well as the search party that he fervently wished were not probabilities.

"Nine, ten, begin again, One, two, buckle my shoe,"

Timcampy returned to a perch on Allen's head from a scout ahead of the land and the unhurried nature of his flight brought slight ease to the entire company.

"Three, four, shut the door,"

Krory craned his head back to peer gloomily through the canopy at the broken pieces of dusky sky, stomach lingering on the wonderful meal he'd enjoyed that morning, so many hours ago. The party processed in mild silence for a few meters as their senses adjusted to the darkening evening.

"Seven, eight, lay them straight,"

Lenalee ran through a mental list of the constellations she knew in order to keep herself from succumbing to a steadily more irresistible urge to rest. She squeezed her eyes shut as she failed to contain a yawn. Bookman studied the forest floor in deep thought.

"Nine, ten, begin a-"

"HEY, YOU!! GET THE HELL BACK HERE!" All members of the drowsy troop snapped to attention as the shout was shortly followed by the sound of nearing footsteps crushing dead tree limbs. There was a bizarre pause as the foursome hovered between drawing weapons and calling out to the voice that was strangely familiar though not exactly comforting, but that was promptly ended as the speaker (rather shouter) burst through the clearing and, miraculously, around Krory and straight into Allen who held up his activated arm just in time to receive the edge of- "Mugen! Activate!"

"Kanda, it's m-" The entire party again watched without fully reacting as the infamous katana was raised to proceed a powerful cleaving blow and then lowered towards Allen's cranium. The shock continued as the blade halted inches above its seeming receiver-to-be and Kanda turned, slicing sideways at what appeared to be empty air.

"You damn gollum! Stay the hell still!!" Timcampy flitted energetically as a clearly grudge-holding Kanda advanced upon him. Decision made, the gilded creature took refuge in Lenalee's shirt front, making itself as small and as uncontrollable as possible. Allen stepped between his late attacker and his hounded Gollum defensively but Kanda (reluctantly) made no further offense as he and the others began to comprehend their connection. "You all are searching for Baka-Usagi?" he asked haughtily, tossing his hair back after his exertion. The younger exorcists looked to Bookman to confirm this and he did so with a short nod.

"You're the reinforcements?" Kanda returned the bob of the head and sheathed Mugen sullenly. Bookman indicated for Krory to continue and Lenalee followed though Kanda and Allen stood glaring at one another while Bookman plodded after her. The two broke the fierce glower mechanically and stomped after Bookman in unison.

"You should teach that dumbass gollum of yours some manners, moyashi!"

"Maybe I can teach you some at the same time."

"Che! I've done nothing wrong! Your gollum came to me and I asked it to show me the way and the stupid thing took off like it was going haywire," Kanda scowled ferociously at the younger exorcist at a noise of incredulity and added, "and evidently played innocent when he got back to you!"

"Sure, Kanda. But, _evidently_, you forgot that the clearing was our meeting place."

"Che! So what? As far as I understand we need to catch the Usagi as fast as possible so coming to meet you was the most efficient." Allen sighed, rolled his eyes, and seized upon the mantra 'if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all', increasing his pace to fall into a single file line. Kanda, glad of the self-removal of his everlasting annoyance, fell silent and focused on trail blazing, seizing upon the mantra of his mission guidelines. He replaced a well-practiced hand on the hilt of his sword cautiously, listening intently for an approach from behind. "Ready or not… here I come."

* * *

At the coming of darkness, Tyki and Lavi had been forced to halt as the river was no longer present to capture the starlight and provide a point of reference. Once again, Tyki's habitual smoking proved to be a blessing as his lighter was an easy fire starter and had been since their second night (the first being the night during which Tyki had eaten a koi raw and Lavi had been treated with an apple). Lavi poked dry leaves with infinite care into the uneven tepee of thin sticks that was the fire's fuel. Tyki was flopped backwards across the circle of dirt they'd relieved of it's grasses to contain the flames, the remnants of a scanty supper resting on his chest. His bent knees were, as ever, lazily lolled outward, occasionally swinging to and fro out of boredom.

"Can indirect heat burn you?" Lavi, accustomed to such random inquiries of Tyki's idle mind, responded without looking up,

"You mean, for example, could your shins burn even though they're not touching the fire?" Tyki, accustomed to Lavi unintentionally identifying his more specific concern, did not comment on the fact that he had.

"Yeah…"

"It can, but only if the heat is intense enough; the campfire won't."

"Good…" Tyki contemplatively finished off his meal while his companion sat in silence, knees drawn under his chin and arms folded in front of his lower face. "It's weird how I'm not cold unless I think about being by the fire. Like I'm not thirsty unless I think about leaving the river." Lavi made no reply to such rarely deep comments, believing the Noah to be talking to himself to sleep. With an intake of breath, Tyki hefted himself into a sitting position and gazed fixedly at his companion through puzzling eyes. The object of his consideration made no sign of noticing him, seemingly preoccupied by his own thoughts or drowsiness. The seldom silent man focused intently on the similarly more frequently vocal exorcist, mimicking his thoughtful position for several moments. "Lavi?" a single green eye flicked up and Tyki let his legs cross and slide to the floor. "Who are you?" The redhead bit back his instinctual literal reply of 'Lavi' and managed instead to answer,

"You know. What's my name?"

"Lavi."

"What's my job?"

"You're an exorcist. And a bookman."

"How old am I?"

"Eighteen, but-"

"What's my personality; half empty or half full?"

"Ha-half empty," Tyki frowned at this indirect response, "that's not what I-"

"That's all you need to know," the single eye returned its view to the fire conclusively. Tyki considered the adolescent briefly, wondering if worry and wear were wholly responsible for his terse manner and if it was best to let him have his way.

_I'm bringing home a baby bumble bee…_

"So what? I know your name, I know some 'basic statistics'," Lavi glared at the offensive rehash of his own words, "that's not you."

"That's all you need to know," the increasingly irate youth repeated snippishly.

"Hypocrite," Tyki shook his head disbelievingly, "after you told me about all the things you knew about me, who I am. Who are you?" Lavi's stress that had been building ignited into anger at these insults and irritations, given the slightest justification to vent some way. He ignored his inquisitor. "How do you like your innocence? What shapes do you see in clouds? Where do you like to eat? What's your favorite ice cream? Briefs or boxers? Why do you wear your hair up? How do you celebrate your birthday? What do you wish on? Why do you wear an eye patch-" Lavi snapped.

"SHUT UP!" Tyki watched him rise, unphased, maintaining an eager yet contained expression. "You don't have a right to know anything like that!" Lavi shook slightly with ferocity shouting at his unmoved aggressor with a sincere passion, an earnest emotion, something Tyki realized he'd never seen from him.

"And why not? Do you have something to hide? Are you shy?" The Noah replied conversationally, nearly hungrily. "Are you afraid?"

"What the hell is your problem?" Lavi's anger deflated abruptly into bitter contempt. He shook his shaggy hair over his eyes, rubbing his face with his hands as if trying to see straight. "What are you doing?" He looked up with anguished melancholy. Tyki gazed evenly at his finally fellow human, gently yet sternly, offering no reply. "You're a Noah. You're a _Noah_, don't you get it? Our acquaintance goes to the edge of the forest and that's it, it's over, that's _all_." Lavi's voice shook and he swallowed, breaking their joint glance before continuing. "You're keeping me in case the exorcists catch up with us, I know that, hostage negotiation in favor of an unmatched brawl, you _know_ that." The junior bookman passed his hands over his face again to regain composure. "You know your enemy well enough." He sat slowly, resuming his previous sitting position but hiding his face completely now. Tyki assessed him briefly then replied with a humorless huff of a laugh.

"Actually, I'm not. And I disagree on all of your points, though it's clear you won't tell me anymore about yourself because you _can't_. You don't even know yourself."

"TYKI! SHUT UP!" The fury was once again inflamed.

"And you certainly don't know me. I think you over think a lot of things."

"I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU THINK! YOU DON'T KNOW!"

"Well, I suppose that makes two of us."

"SHUT UP!!" Lavi was on his knees this time, leaning forward threateningly. He shook his head in vexation glaring fiercely at the still placid Noah. "FIGHT BACK DAMN IT!!" The irrational redhead convulsed as a sickeningly recognizable sensation invaded his nervous system.

"Do you really want me to fight back?" Lavi felt fingertips brush his heart and ribs as Tyki's hand slid beneath his skin, trembling slightly against the arm he'd been pushed back upon. The anger trickled away and he was just an eighteen year-old brat staring at premature death with every appropriate trace of fear. The fire was almost out but the outlines of both their faces were amply illuminated to provide each with a theatrical view of the other. Tyki regarded his victim with the previously seen austere softness and slid his hand to Lavi's neck and spine. "I wasn't going to negotiate you, I dropped that plan when you opted not to run away, and you haven't yet so I wasn't going to use you for parlay. Yes, I _am_ a Noah but that really has little to do with our situation. You're only half an exorcist, half a Bookman. I'm half black…" his hand slipped out of Lavi's body and hung beside his throat, "only half white." He lolled his head to one side contemplatively. "We're the same, Lavi." The still panicked adolescent's expression adopted a flash of disbelief. Tyki leaned forward, speaking softly next to his captive's ear. "By the way… you never finished earlier. What am I afraid of?" Lavi blinked and instinctively answered. He whispered,

"Yourself."

Tyki smiled.

The fire went out.


	5. Count to Ten

What was that... October I promised this? ...is so sorry... It was a hell and a half to right and an eon of waiting time but I hope you'll forgive me and still read it! It might be worth it!... I hope so! Enjoy maybe?

* * *

His eyes fluttered open in a series of rapid blinks. Consciousness was as sluggish as circulation in returning, pulsing at the tip of his spine and lifting his eyelids again and again. Blink.

_Color_.

Blink.

_Cold_.

Blink.

_Neck_.

Blink.

_Color_.

Blink.

_Colo__r_. _Colors?_

Blink.

_Color_.

His eyes struggled to fully open- correction, they opened plenty well enough- but all he could see was…

_Black_.

Feeling was to his shoulders now, past a welt at the back of his neck that throbbed with irritating force. He sought the use of an arm but found the nerves unresponsive. Another more desperate attempt debased that theory as he felt his arm restrained by an external source, a familiar one. Rope?

"Eh…" he tried his mouth, fumbling through sounds, "Tyki?" Awareness cascaded throughout his system and sent his mind racing to react to comprehension and cognizance. He'd messed up. Once again his shoulders strained and his wrists ached as he jerked his arms bound above his head, this time finding his torso attached to the tree as well. "Tyki?" He spoke succinctly this time, envisioning the Noah sulking somewhere beyond his blindfold, hoping to make amends and offer explanations as to his previous disposition. "Ty-" Lavi arrested another unanswered call, freezing completely and using his currently most useful sense.

The surroundings were silent.

Not merely quiet with chirps and muffled movements characteristic of a vacated forest, but supernaturally silent with an utter absence of noise so voluminous that the hush resounded in his ears and all feelings akin to alert compounded into defensive fear. He was utterly alone. Yet even more than that, utterly helpless.

* * *

"Hup!" A flutter of gold splashed into the air, melting from a spray of sliver that joined it shortly. "Good morning!" Allen stretched his arms towards his toes, smiling blithely at the dawn-mottled assembly around him. Krory waved a spindly hand limply, sitting with his knees bent up beneath his chin and an air of established wakefulness. The latest watchman and the earliest riser made no reply to the reserved yet chipper greeting, Kanda leaning against a bark encased pillow and Bookman planted not far off, both with their backs to Allen. Lenalee sat up to his left as he continued to scan his surroundings, lifting her arms as he had and yawning.

"Good morning…" she mumbled, giving her eyes a thorough rub.

"Oh…" Krory made a soft noise of realization and fumbled through his cloak's folds, producing two sack lunches courtesy of the Asia Branch cook and offering them out to the recently awakened.

"Oh, thank you, Krory," Allen exclaimed with much exuberance while Lenalee accepted her breakfast without commentary, "I was fit to starve!"

"Oi! Eat on the way, Moyashi," Kanda moved unexpectedly, swinging Mugen to point towards his audience for emphasis. "Bookman says it's time to move out." At this the youngest exorcist present made an elegantly pained and remorseful grimace as those around him rose and prepared to move on. He gingerly pocketed an item from the sack, lamenting,

"Poor Lavi… he must be positively _famished_." Kanda rolled his eyes as he passed the prattling youth but was paid no mind. "I'll save him a biscuit…" Allen patted the bulk in his coat pocket tenderly, scrambling to his feet in pursuit of the dark train of Black Order coats splattered with the sunlight suffocated by a forest that merely seemed to be harmless.

* * *

"…Hmm?" A perplexing scene of black-rimmed white reflected bleary, dull orbs. The expanse of intense color revealed itself to be two separate expanses as they shifted from white to black at alternating times, once… twice… then again.

"RAAAAH" Skin bolted upright, flinging Jasdebi off his mountainous chest and reacting rather extremely to the age old prank of leaning directly over a sleeping person, much to the twins' delight. He seethed darkly as the two pranced about the campsite, giddy with the success of their endeavor, shooting at random and whooping as though possessed. A glance to either side sparked a minute twinge of remorse in Skin as he noted his fairer brethren experiencing a rather unpleasant awakening from her repose in his comfortable body heat. However, this was shortly felt as a previously unseen green head was lifted from his stomach and the Earl awoke with a pitiful,

"Ho…"

Less pleased than generously content that he had been both used as a heater and a tuffet, Skin growled threateningly as he brusquely cast his family from his person and dusted himself off.

"Aww!" Road objected shrilly, refusing to open her eyes and admit wakefulness as she crawled to a new cozy position on the Earl's lap. Impossibly long ears flapped comically as the Earl shook his head forcefully.

"Jasdebi! Hush! Hush!" His croaked demand was wildly obliged, the raucous squeals dying to sporadic giggles. "Rooooad," he grunted, pulling the desperately "asleep" Noah into a standing position, "wake up time…"

"No way!" she yipped, hiding her face with her hands and struggling to reach a parallel position with the forest floor. "Oh, come now," Skin roughly gathered an array of discarded coats, hats, and shoes, "don't you want to look for Tyki-pon?" Bright eyes opened eagerly at the reminder and Road bounded over to Skin, snatching her possessions from his armload and hurriedly dawning them. "Ho, ho, ho, ho! That's the way!" The Earl exclaimed merrily. "We can't let the exorcists beat us, can we?"

"There are exorcists too, Earl-samma?"

"Yeah… since when did we know that?" Road and Skin cast inquisitive looks towards the suit-primping, self-satisfied, chuckling gremlin.

"A little butterfly told me." His spectacles gleamed in the malignantly eerie way they were prone to as a Teeze alighted upon his outstretched, gloved hand, creating a picture of such profoundly diabolical sorts that even the two Noah gulped uneasily. Just as the cries of hell's damned souls seemed to cue in, the moment was broken with a flop of the smile-stained green head and the paternal coax, "Hurry along now! We need to catch up to Lulu!" In a few minutes time, the twins were rounded up and the odd procession of the Earth's greatest evil-doers bobbed playfully (with the exception of Skin) into the now brightly lit wilderness two members short.

* * *

The cacophonic silence blended seamlessly into the pound of his pulse as Lavi continued listening desperately under the growing suspicion that he was very far from utterly alone. Someone or some_thing_, he was predisposed to believe the latter, was approaching him head on at a considering pace and in a very predatory manner. He contemplated voicing several classic horror story victim lines but abandoned such a course of action as he strongly suspected his assailant was not human and perhaps even more importantly because he felt playing the role of an incurably hapless victim would inevitably encourage his company to play the role of an interminably merciless mad axe murderer. Instead he remained absolutely silent, trembling violently and simply listening to the sometimes imagined, sometimes audible approach of a terrible unknown. As intensely as he desired the footfalls to belong to an immaturely revenge-seeking Tyki, Lavi knew (with a strangely injured conviction) it was not so, but instinct told him that no matter what the Noah had planned for his fate, he hadn't tied him up and left to forge his own way. He had to be in the, albeit vast, vicinity.

A twig snapped strikingly louder than any bending of a fern or crumbling of a decayed leaf that had preceded it, and Lavi experienced a change in ambiance from the ridiculously delicate to laden with grim certainty as he realized his unwanted guest knew he'd heard the noise, knew he knew it was truly a threatening presence and abandoned all attempts at stealth. His body beat out his brain in reaction time.

"TYKI!! TYKIIIIIIIIII!!! TYKIIII!!!" the screams pervaded the mid-morning scene with a mocking quality, so desperate yet clearly unheard. Another branch snapped under his slowly yet pointedly approaching attacker's tread. "TYKIIII!!! TYKIII! HELP!" The pressure of a small, dexterous appendage came down on Lavi's shin and a feeling of blood lust overwhelmed him. Noah's Pleasure was apparently the only antagonist who took prisoners; this thing was going to kill him. "TYKIIIII!!!!" he heard his voice come hopelessly from outside himself, plummeting internally into the last protection of his pounding heart. His executioner's breath came warm across his face. "TYKI!" his final cry was met by the screeches of a flock of birds and the world flashed startlingly bright.

"Hey! HEY!" Nothing was registering, there was too much color, he was numb. "Lavi, hey! Lavi!" His single visible green eye locked onto a freshly familiar dark face bearing an alarmed and concerned expression.

Blink.

"Tyki?" the elder man crouched down by Lavi's side, brushing stray hairs to lay flat on his forehead.

"Gee, bumblebee, I leave for five minutes and you start passing out and screaming bloody murder…" the junior bookman noted his blindfold being discarded beside ropes and felt any awkward resentful sentiments between he and his reunited accomplice dissolve.

"When did I pass out?" Lavi allowed himself to be guided into a reclined position on the woodland ground.

"Listen to you, you're so confused," a smirk painted itself across the sable skin. "You were unconscious when I got here for a few seconds. I think you fainted from panic…" an olive gaze surreptitiously scanned his still heavily but less rapidly expanding and deflating chest. "Are you okay?"

Lavi swallowed a verbal reply and squeezed his eye shut tight. He was slightly dizzy. Silence, normal silence with avian chirps and breeze-induced rufflings of foliage, stretched pleasantly on as Tyki resumed his preening tasks dutifully. His patient's eyes stayed closed and his respiration gradually slowed to a normal, healthy rate. Tyki wondered with his innate perpetual and, more often than not, audacious curiosity what had come to pass during his absence but suppressed any inquiries. As long as Lavi held his tongue, no prodding would occur, it was only fair. After all, a bookman was doubtless consumed by questions and Lavi could strip his well kept façade down with only a few carefully posed queries; Tyki had far too many answers hidden in the hands on the exorcist's head that had simply not been called upon. They were waiting though; they had been since General Cross's search team entered the warehouse they had no true reason to visit. Tyki raised his eyebrows inquisitively as he registered that Lavi was staring meekly up at him.

"Why did you tie me up again?" Tyki missed half a second of a beat before replying blankly,

"To keep you in one place, but then out of spite. That's why- the blindfold… yeah. I was pretty mad for a while, but not for long." He bit the tip of a finger guiltily, leaning nearer. "I hope your neck doesn't hurt too much from when _I_ knocked you out." Lavi couldn't help but laugh at the matter of fact apology and grasped the hand now stationary on his temple.

"How about my head?"

"Oh, no, did I damage your nerves or something ? Did I splinter your spine? I totally didn't mean to…"

"Heh!" Lavi shook his head at such characteristic Tyki logic. "No it just hurts…when you get knocked out like that, at the neck, it kind of spreads up…" the somewhat invalid vaguely described a process Bookman had deeply explained during an acupuncture intensive as Tyki glared intently but incomprehensibly.

"Wow… that sucks," was the Noah's sagacious conclusion. "Sorry about that."

"No problem really," Lavi sat up, feeling already significantly better than before. "We ought to be moving on…"

"Uh, uh, uh." Tyki pressed his shoulder to keep him from standing. "You're eating before we go anywhere. You feeble little fainter, you." The ration sacks were tastefully ravished and suitable breakfast procured with an air of maternal insistence. "Ah…"

"You're kidding." Tyki gave his serious-as-possible look, keeping the food suspended in front of Lavi's mouth.

"Am I?" The redhead snorted in disbelief but complied with the juvenile demand.

"Ah…"

"There we go…" Lavi rolled his eye as a small amount of the forest's fruits were plopped smartly onto his tongue. "Chew." He worked his jaw with extenuated movements, swallowing deliberately before stating with mock vexation,

"Yes, mother." Tyki smiled prettily and patted Lavi's head, playing along with considerably less sarcasm,

"That's my good boy. Now up."

"Eh." The junior bookman hefted himself into a standing position, dwelling briefly on the use of the possessive article with mixed emotions.

"I think we're almost out of the woods, by the way, I went scouting… sort of."

"Oh, I was wondering where you went." Tyki blinked vacantly, seeming to have spaced out but clearly aware of his surroundings as he stopped walking when Lavi did, exhibiting a finely tuned evasive tactic the Noah had had occasion to display before whenever the conversation took a turn he'd rather not follow. Lavi heckled to himself and pursued the subject no further, lapsing into a pleasantly amiable took this unanticipated opportunity to reflect upon a sudden and slightly disturbing evolution of his emotional state.

Lavi was eighteen years old.

He was male.

As unspectacular as these two pieces of information seemed, together they made for a powerful and jeopardizing combination, put briefly, he was highly hormonal. Naturally, as an unruly youth females had seemed a sort of unspeakably wretched terrorist group to be avoided at all costs, but, as per usual, with leg hair and a deep voice came an insatiable and inexplicable hunger for the tender sex. Lavi in particular was afflicted by the girl-craze contagion and most often fell for older women. These affections and lust-driven interests were all superficial though, by a margin of 60% or more, due to the nature of adolescent romance and the detached bookman mode of existence. Forbiddance of personal bonds indubitably extended to marital or even dating ties.

Needless to say, Lavi had tread not infrequently beyond his duty's limitations and, regardless of his general preferences, his first crush of any mentionable magnitude had been Kanda Yu. As initially shocking as this had been, Lavi had accepted his potentially bisexual orientation with nothing more than a shrug (and, he remembers unashamedly, more than a few bouts of giggling at the subject matter). Attraction to _anyone_ did not come as a surprise anymore.

Well, in any case, it hadn't until recently when Lavi had forced himself to acknowledge that his civility towards a certain Noah, that of course being Tyki, had altered from unexpected friendship to romantic interest; both as good as a crime and hopelessly impossible to pursue. He scratched his head somberly, vaguely noting the vegetation obscuring his path as he trod numbly alongside the very object of his contemplation. Here is the dissection of the issue in proof form courtesy of Lavi's own logical mind.

Tyki. Attraction, yes. (Reasons: physique, character intrigue, personality, compatibility, ease of company, mysterious allure).

Verbal Admittance, no.

Anticipation of admittance, yes.

Mode. Direct, yes. (Reasons: efficiency, assurance of communication, inform-ee capacity).

Message. Blatant, yes. (Reasons: same as above).

Purpose. Removing tension, yes.

Prospective success, yes.

Consequence consideration. Forethought, no.

And that was that, in the least complicated form. Lavi gnawed his lip contemplatively wondering if the relatively small amount of foreseeable pitfalls were enough to merit regrouping or nullification of his plans. His brain met his eyes at his footfall and he stepped into cognizance. Now was as good a time as ever. "Hey, Tyki," he batted an irresistibly accessible shoulder calmly, "I have something to talk about."

* * *

An uncommon noise set five hearts racing and firmly clamped five mouths. The exorcists leaned, peered, listened for signs of a threat, froze, inhaled, swallowed as the rising wave of the unexpected boiled above their heads. Heads fwipped, silent steps fell, and weapons shone bare in the admitted patches of sunlight. The tsunami reached an impossible apex.

Allen staggered in slow motion as a light-speed, gilded projectile rebounded from a solid strike against his head.

Eight eyes led four faces as four torsos turned as though seconds were the new minute towards the descending fifteen year-old.

His fall broke the moment with jarring series of bounces and comical exclamation of

"Tim!" Kanda choked back incohesive oaths and swung his head down with a stamp of his boot.

"You and your damn golem, Moyashi!" but Allen could not be bothered with defense at the present moment; the accused mechanism was flitting expressively, flying in a pointed manner that belied the desperation of its message. A look of panic abruptly seized Allen's features after a lull of confusion and he sat riveted until the relay concluded, only addressing his human companions at the end of the final significant wing flap.

"He's seen them!" He passed his fellows in a breeze of black and silver, beating the foliage beneath his feet.

"Who!" Lenalee called as the remainder of the group commenced a jog before they lost sight of their herald.

"Both of them!" Allen piped back as he hurdled a fallen tree haphazardly and then, "All of them! Everyone! Lavi, Tyki, the Earl!-" Krory bent forward, becoming an aerodynamic sprinter and Kanda lengthened his stride.

_Lavi_… Bookman paused for half a second, staring at the vivacious youths speeding ahead of him. The aches in his legs went forgotten as he spurred his autumnal frame to a pace closer to Lenalee's heels than any of his compatriots. He'd seen them. All of them.

* * *

Bang, bang! Bang! Bangbang bangbang!

"Where'd it go!"

"He!"

"Jasdebi, stop that shooting!" the rotund dignitary bustled past Road and Skin, crossly confronting his desperados. "What is this now?"

"Shiny, he!"

"Shiny!" They pointed with their revolvers into the forest. "It flew away! It flew away, he!"

"Ho…" the Earl breathed anxiously, putting a hand to his cheek as he realized that the shiny was undoubtedly Timcampy the golem. Jasdero blinked owlishly at the spot where the spy had appeared while the remainder of the Noahs approached and watched as the Earl's thought process manifested itself on his countenance.

"He!"

"What! What flew away!" Road tugged the tan suit sleeve that was practically molded to her grip and Jasdero prodded his brother.

"He!"

"Shush, shush, Road, I'm trying to think!" Debitto now too gazed fixedly into the brush. Skin growled at the twins as they simultaneously jerked at his elbows.

"HE!"

"Hey, fatso, what the heck is-"

"_Teeeeelll me, pleeeease_!! Was it a bird? Did they shoot it?"

"HE, HE!"

"GET THE HELL-" five bodies stiffened from shock as five heartbeats bolted into overdrive in reaction to an eruption of lithe, sable fur from the recently vacated hedge gap. A dangerous looking wildcat was suspended in five pairs of eyes as the sunlight, or perhaps some divine skewing of perception, transformed it into an increasingly less feline creature. In a magnificent burst of leaves, cat, and light, the Earl's top hat was knocked from his cranium by the hurdling beast who landed lightly beside it on decidedly two legs. Lulubell stooped and brushed the accessory smartly before presenting it to her gremlin patriarch.

"Shiny, he!" Her glasses gleamed in an admirable replication of the Earl's as she pivoted away from the yet gaping circle and half power walked, half trotted into the density of the forest. Skin's lengthy gate kept pace with her easily and he reached her side in the thirty seconds it took for the remainder of their family to realize they were being left behind.

"What'd you see?"

"The exorcist," Lulubell flipped her hair over her shoulder irritably as the four laggers traipsed towards them. "He was alone."

"Did you kill him?" The shapeshifter clenched and unclenched her fists with a vexed huff.

"Almost…"

"Wait up, wait up!"

"Ho, ho!"

"He!"

"Where d'ya think you're goin' already!"

"Tyki chased me off."

"Whaaaat?" The Earl came to a tremulous halt and the twins and Road collided with his back."Tyki?" Lulubell turned her head and nodded severely. An ominous vibration traveled up the villain's frame, causing those unfortunate enough to be behind him to step away hurriedly. "Tyki?" The Earl repeated his query a whole octave higher than before, still quaking in his menacing way. "You've seen Tyki-pon?" The agitated Lust of Noah turned fully around and stared down the infuriated gremlin coolly.

"I saw Tyki. I saw the junior bookman. I saw the senior bookman. I saw the Asian, the vampire, the Lee girl, and the Walker kid, I saw the golem and the golem saw me." If Lulubell had shouted the words, they could not have been more blood chilling. Two pairs of glasses glinted in the light reflected by the other, like sparks of brimstone and with equal amounts of ethereal menace. The stiller the Noah became the more fiercely her duke trembled, pushing the tension to a nasty breaking point. The point, however, was never reached.

"CHARGE!!" The stare down collapsed with the Earl under the boots of the twins as, pistols flashing and discharging at random, they rivaled Lulubell's entrance with an incredible leap from their gremlin ramp clear over their sister's head and into the bushes ahead of her.

"TO TYKI!" cried Road with an eager squeal of mirth, dashing after them and over the Earl. Skin looked from the dazed duke to the loping shoulders of Jasdebi a good ways off with increasing vexation before heaving the toppled patriarch to his feet and striding after the forerunners, swearing ,

"To hell with it. Tyki best say his damn prayers."

"Hoo,oooh…" the Earl swayed a bit and by the time he could see straight Lulubell's ponytail was vanishing into the thicket.

_Tyki_…he hesitated a moment more, thoughts conceivable only to villains of such a devastating caliber racing through his bulbous head. Quite contrary to an expected impressive sprint, he took off in pursuit at his habitual waddle, teetering into the wilderness with a single teeze flitting behind him.

* * *

"Oh, yeah?" Lavi's initiative dropped out of him the instant the piercing golden eyes turned to him. "'Bout what?" Lavi made an effort to shut his mouth, blinking in a stunned manner and grasping for his resolve around his ankles, completely naked before the task he'd signed himself up for.

"I-uh, uh, I-uh…" he swallowed, attention flashing between the evolving smirk on Tyki's face, the trees standing mockingly still, and an uninvited warmth wearing lurid scarlet prancing across his cheeks. "I-uh, I-I-uh, uh, I-uh-uh-I-"

"You left the iron on?" Tyki took a step, turning to fully face the gaping exorcist.

"N-no, I-"

"You…ate a bug on accident?" Lavi's panic was flipped on its back and thrashing around, becoming a new terror all together. He stepped back as another stride brought Tyki closer.

"You want to be a firefighter-"

"No-"

"You can't ride a bicycle-"

"I can, but-"

"You lick kitchen knives-"

"N-"

"You're still afraid of the dark-"

"Tyki, no-"

"You think you're overweight-anorexic-"

"No, it's nothing-"

"You like brussel sprouts-"

"No- well, yes, but-"

"You have dreams about unicorns and rainbows-"

"_No_, let me-"

"You taste your blood when you get a cut-"

"Ew, no-"

"You kick puppies!" the onslaught same faster now, louder, Lavi looked back and saw a tree behind him.

"I don't, Tyki, please-" his back met the bark and a sable finger prodded the place between his clavicle.

"Got it," he stared in distress at the playfully aggressive Noah, "you're a closet twincest fan!"

"What?- No, I-"

"No? None of the above?" Lavi closed his eye tight and clenched his fists against the obstacle keeping him standing.

"Tyki, I l-_love_ you!" It came out loud and brassy, much more forcefully than intended. Tyki's face fell from excitement slowly to a repulsed expression painful to behold. Lavi blinked and the strange deflated face was gone, replaced by a jolly one so like its predecessor that Lavi would have believed the curious look of disgust and fear had never passed across the handsome features if it had not left such an acute throb in his throat.

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Lavi frowned delicately, shrinking up against the tree trunk as much as he could. "HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" Tyki was laughing with his eyes open, not sparing the quaking exorcist his brilliant and biting gaze. He took a pace away from his uncomprehending companion and brought the starkly out of place heckles to a lull, breathing, "That's cute, Lavi." A snatch of giggles slipped out of his barely compressed lips. Strands of red flopped as Lavi shook his head weakly. "That was _good_… really funny." Tyki dropped a flighty smile and turned back on the path, shaking shoulders providing visual confirmation of the stifled laughs creeping between his fingers. Lavi shook his head again, moving forward shakily.

"No," he voiced his gesture tentatively, "no, Tyki, wait!" He ran to keep up. "I was being sincere, Tyki wait!" The Noah went on as if not hearing, maintaining a stride scarcely too fast for Lavi to gain ground. "It's not a joke, I'm serious," he squinted as foliage tripped him and hedges fwapped him across the face, he was losing sight of, "TYK-" His feet chased his voice in a valiant effort to compensate his momentum and stop him from falling against his halted quarry as he broke into a secluded clearing. Tyki stood smiling in a deceivingly mellow manner, hands on hips. Lavi gained his footing and searched for anything, any sign, any mood in the gaze opposite his only to find a wall. Now that he was ready to be open, Tyki was asking him to close his eyes and count to ten.

"Serious? Lavi- _serious_?" the Noah shrugged, a laugh overtly humorous drifted into the open space around them. "You know that's a lie, exorcist." The appellation was like a slap to the face.

"Tyki, I'm dead serious. I am, really…" Lavi leaned forward instinctively. The clearing was _very_ quiet. "I… I've thought about it really hard. We're eight years apart but we meet somewhere in the middle maturity-wise, and um… we're on different sides of the war, but… I don't know, it seems like that would work out…we wouldn't fight unless we had to and then… whatever happened would happen…" Lavi glanced away briefly, disheartened by the unwavering grin, a shake creeping into his eager tone. "And I'm bi… if you couldn't tell- so that part's true I guess, I mean, I have the capacity to love you- oh, and you're gay… just like you said upfront. That was one of your secrets…"

"One?" Tyki's smile stayed in tact through the question.

"Yeah… I guess you know already… you've got lots of secrets." Lavi looked up a little apologetically now.

"Yes, but only one is important presently." The tawny gaze cut sideways, eyelids dropping in an odd expression of notice Lavi was too distracted to analyze.

"And which one would that be, bookman, three guesses…" Lavi plowed through his growing confusion, focusing only on the puzzle at hand and not the details.

"You left a teeze behind- by the river."

"True, but not exactly pivotal to the current issues. Two to go."

"You left fake footprints at the factory because you knew your family would follow."

"Interesting- how'd you figure that one out?" Tyki's placid smirk widened with intrigue.

"Teeze are golems, aren't they?"

"Ha," the Noah brushed his hair back in a familiar gesture, "bold move. Wrong secret though- last shot." Lavi felt sickly frustrated. Just turning him down would have sufficed; Tyki was toying with him now, he hadn't considered Lavi's neck on the chopping block at all, just cut it clean and quickly.

"I… Tyki, I don't know." The adolescent turned a defeated visage to his interrogator.

"Ah… the most important one," the Noah savored his misdeed before voicing it, shutting his eyes and lifting his face to the sky. "Who set the bomb off, Lavi?" It was an answer Lavi was afraid to take.

"I don't know." Tyki kept his gaze cloaked but lowered his head, producing a cigarette from his pocket and his well-used lighter. Lavi watched dully as a dark thumb ignited the light over and over again without touching the smoke to it, just flaring the tiny flame.

"Well…" finally the ash met its desired light and the cigarette its perch, "you ought to know before you get 'serious' about loving me…" Tyki removed the acrid paper from his mouth with two dainty fingers and opened his eyes to pin down the averted gaze that refused to meet the truth it knew. "It was me." The spark clicked into life for half a second before falling obediently and withdrawing to a back pocket. Tyki replaced the cigarette and regarded the bent red head before him calmly, rocking side to side in the too silent silence around them. "See," he said softly, "I'm not what-"

"Why though?" Lavi's voice was once again too loud. "Why would you do that unless," he took another step forward, "unless…you planned this." Tyki's eyes widened in disbelief. Lavi had completed his initial path and rested his forehead under the Noah's chin, his lax fists on his chest, his body against his own. "You wanted to separate us- me from them. You did it on purpose." Tyki stared, eyes only betraying any confirmation of the statements. He could feel the phrases breathed through his shirt, against his skin. "So why am I not serious?"

"What? Come on… bumble bee, are you _really_ crying?" Lavi's fists closed around the fabric they rested on and he rubbed his face into Tyki's front, balefully claiming,

"No!" even as the tears seeped through the cloth.

"Tsk! What's this? What's this?"

"It's just- it's just-" Tyki pouted at the juvenile countenance, made so by it's tragic arrangement of features. "The- the fish! And the apple, and tying me up twice! And we slept together, and we got food for each other! And- and we survived our first fight! And you saved me from that thing this morning! And- and- I was seriously serious!" Lavi dolefully wiped his eye with his fist, gaining an impressive amount of composure.

"Ahh, bumble bee…" Tyki allowed for a melodramatic embrace, glancing up sharply to the side, careful not to attract Lavi's attention. "It's just… if we let ourselves be in love… it would be… it would be like this: 'Borboleta voadora, Borboleta fugidia, Às vezes só vive um dia, às vezes só uma hora- Mas qúe hora de alegria'." Lavi gazed up at the mildly frowning Tyki inquisitively.

"What…-_Tim_?" Tyki grinned and shut his eyes once more. Here was his cue.

"RRAAAAAAAH!!!!" Lavi jerked his head around in the direction of the battle cry of none other than Noah's Rage. He looked back in terror at the softly smiling Tyki.

"Who was-"

"IYAAAAAAAAAAAA!" He stared behind Tyki, looking for the source of the very familiar shout.

"What?- _Kanda_?"

"Mas qúe hora de alegria…"

"Ty-" Cold erupted through Lavi's panicked nervous system as a sensation he'd known on a small scale flooded his entirety. The last thing he felt was a rough thumb slip under his right eye and come away with unnoticed moisture. By the time he'd regained control enough to move, he turned around to find Tyki gone.

He'd walked right through him.

Lavi sagged to his knees as Lenalee burst into the clearing towards him and hit the ground by the time Allen had finished calling out his name.

"LAVI!!!"

"Borboleta…"


	6. Oli Oli Oxen Free

THE LAST CHAPTER! A thousand apologies for the uber belated-ness... many of you have probably already heard that school was hell, ergo I didn't have time to write or review until summer... which is now. I add an additional sorry since I finished this and it was typed nearly two weeks ago and I never posted it (but I figure two more weeks wouldn't be noticed after a good year). Thank you, dedicated readers for your encouragement, and I hope this wrap up chapter passes muster.

Love to you all, and of course to Lucky.

* * *

"Ha-… haaaaaaa…"

The pebbles and rain backwash trenches vibrated through his skull dully as the carriage jostled over them, transferring the bumps through the wheels to his cheek on the tiny window frame. He gazed out blankly at the trees ticking past through morosely half closed eyes and the cage of his crossed arms.

"Che!" Kanda barely voiced his weariness of Lavi's moody state, brashness bowing to social clues that now was a time of delicacy. Lenalee and Allen had opened and closed their mouths numerous times with the intention of making some bright remark or offering condolences only to fold under the oppressively melancholic atmosphere. Krory sat motionless, hands neatly folded in his lap, attempting to shrink to invisibility while across from him sat the silently smoking Bookman, eyes closed grumpily and habitual terse expression in place. The pole of depression radiating angst out into the cramped and enclosed space flicked the windowpane in vexation, swearing mentally at the thickness of the glass and consequential injury to his fingernail.

"_I'm bringing home a baby bumble bee… won't Earl-Samma be so proud of me?"- "Okay… oh, uh, I ate the fish though."- "You were ogling me."- "Can indirect heat burn you?"-"Mas qúe hora de alegria…"_

Lavi imagined that, were he on film in a romantic comedy, tears would come to his eyes after the montage of scenes from his month-long relationship with Tyki had passed through his head, creating the quintessential forbidden love scene. He gave his tear glands a few moments to get with the picture but found the saline spectacle reluctant to make a showing. With an inaudible yet exaggerated exhale, he straightened and sat facing forward, gaze meeting a wide-eyed and tense gray one. Allen did a shaky double take before offering an uncertain smile that was too easy to reciprocate.

"Hey Sprout, how's it going?" Immediately the mien in the coach began to soften. From the moment they'd found Lavi in the clearing, alone and in a heap, they'd gotten no verbal interaction save for "no", "yes", and "fine" and those in response only to the very most Lavi-well-being-specific questions.

"I'm well, Lavi, how are you?"

"I'm glad to be back." One of the two smiles gained confidence and sincerity.

"We're glad you're back, too, Lavi," a third pair of cheeks dimpled as Lenalee joined the conversation, "and we're so glad you're okay- we've been so afraid that…" a tinge of the earlier weight returned as the remainder of the sentence, though unspoken, stretched on implied.

"I though you'd be dead," Kanda stated darkly with characteristic honesty for lack of tact. This worsened the ambiance considerably, reducing Allen to his forced and embarrassed grin and Lenalee to inspecting the grain of the benches. Lavi's mind was simply blank, not offended but finding it once more impossible to even fake cheeriness. From a historian's perspective, three weeks had to be earth shattering to merit even a sentence, and yet his most core self refused to skim over them as such. He really missed the person he loved. And that person was a man, a Noah, Tyki Mikk.

"Oh! I'd almost forgotten!" Every pair of awkward-subject-avoiding eyes flicked surreptitiously towards Allen. "I-um," he jolted into action, patting his coat feverishly until, "ah! I saved you a biscuit!"

"Oh, wow, Allen! Thanks so much," an empty grin spoke for an empty stomach as Lavi took the amazingly still fluffy morsel and, for his audience, began to eat. It tasted dryer than it looked. He fought to swallow and found himself in a coughing fit. Eight hands reached him instantly and he turned away, shooing the attention and transforming the hacks into laughter. His own hand swiped across his mouth and he offered a concerned and apologetic smirk and explained, "Actually, I haven't had a drink in a few days."

"No-"

"Lavi, you're kidding-"

"I knew there was something-"

"Here-" a canteen was roughly shoved in front of his face, a familiar gnarled hand attached.

"Thanks, jiji-"

"Drink."

"Mmf!" Lavi leaned his head back, quickly welcoming the liquid into his esophagus to accommodate its unexpected presence in his mouth. "Ah… _thanks_, jiji." He replaced the container in the ancient's lap and laughed reassuringly to quench the alarmed countenances trained on him. Order was restored and the comfortable silence renewed, but by his treatment thus far, Lavi could tell his mysterious absence had merely isolated him more than usual from his fellow exorcists. He could almost see the 'handle with caution' stamp on his forehead as he cast a wistful glance out the window.

He'd gotten used to being fundamentally understood.

* * *

"Did not."

"Did too!"

"Did not."

"Did too!"

"Did _not_."

"Did TOO!" Tyki rounded the corner of the elegant mansion hallway with Road close in tow, suit jacket hooked lazily on a forefinger resting on his shoulder.

"I did not promise you I'd play ever in the last four hours since I've been back."

"CHILDREN! Indoor voices!" The Earl called (ironically) from somewhere deep within the labyrinth of fashionable rooms. In tandem, the brother and sister turned towards the general direction of the voice and stuck their tongues out in juvenile retaliation.

The squabble was then immediately resumed in whispers.

"But you've been gone soooooooooo-" Tyki squinted down, unimpressed as the vowel continued, "-oooooooooo-"

"Road, honestly-"

"-ooooooooo-" Noah's Dreams scrunched her face up intensely to terminate the word at long last, "-ooo long." The younger of the two twitched his mouth passively as his elder widened her eyes in dramatic sorrow.

"You can play," the effected grief evaporated into an imperious pout, "with _any_ other person in the house," the duo strode past a parlor door from which the customary sounds of breaking china indicated Jasdebi's presence. Tyki hesitated here, faking an encouraging expression and spreading an arm towards the room in advertisement. "Sounds like they're shooting plate ware again, guaranteed fun!"

Road stared him down relentlessly, crossing her arms and half closing her eyes. Tyki increased the width of his winning beam and, upon producing only a darker sulk from the demanding playmate, let the façade fall and continued walking.

Road followed, a hint of smug satisfaction replacing the glower. If she stuck to him long enough, he'd have no other option but concession, a well-practiced truth she delighted in exploiting. A quiet ensued as each party contemplated his and her hand and which cards to play next. Defeat evident in tone, Tyki shrugged,

"I suppose Relo…" Road's victory grin spread into place and she shook her head,

"Relo's _done_ playing with me."

"Haaaaaa…" a single heel pivoted the ninety degrees necessary to bring an aloft leather-clad foot and a smartly dressed body facing it's smaller companion. Tyki let the coat hand dangle between his legs as he squatted on his toes, running a hand through his hair in distressed acceptance. Feline gold frankly met feline gold. "Okay," he nodded sharply, "okay, okay." Road watched him carefully as he swayed his head from side to side methodically before standing and drawing a hand down across his face, wiping stress into slack. "Okay."

The Earl bumbled quietly out of a room shortly behind them, observing the pair intently through darkened lenses.

"Let's play hide and seek," Tyki pronounced with a gentle smile reserved for his sister. In keeping with her previous instructions, Road refrained from manic giggles, favoring exuberant celebratory prancing instead. "I'll hide," a sable thumb prodded a stiff silk dress shirt, "and you count," it's pointer brother focused daintily on the once again motionless tawny stare.

The snooping gremlin waddled stealthily into the hall in pursuit of the retreating Tyki, past the preoccupied Road and into the foyer.

"Four, five," the Pleasure rolled his shoulders forward purposefully, coaxing his smoking jacket into its proper fit. After successfully entering the marbled room unnoticed, the Millenium Earl sidled into a position out of his recently reacquired pet. His ridiculously over-sized ears drooped piteously as he watched sleeves being plucked and lapels flattened to perfection. "Ten, eleven…"

"Tyki," the fruffing halted, a backwards glance being cautiously cast.

"Thirteen, fourteen-"

"Tyki," the Earl flopped his head to the side with painful deliberation, the Noah eying these movements warily,

"seventeen, eighteen-"

"you look as though you plan to leave." Cautiously, Tyki tugged his jacket once, letting his gloved hands fall down the suit front to his sides.

"I do."

"Twenty, twenty-one-" With a few backwards glances to make certain he was safe from immediate danger, Tyki pulled a top hat out of the air and arranged it primly as a final touch.

"So soon?" pined the Earl, much closer than the Pleasure remembered. He spun around, eyes wide in affronted shock, to find the Noah's patriarch standing directly behind him, clutching his coattails morosely as tears streamed from beneath his circular specs. With a squeamish pat on the hat rim, Tyki assured,

"I'll be back by curfew, promise," before stepping backwards neatly through the grand front doors.

"Thirty! Ready or not, here I coooome!"

* * *

The door clicked shut and Lavi turned away with a long contained sigh of relief. The window casement in the local inn squeaked in protest of the burden of his arms and head as he folded himself into a contemplative position. He listened to Bookman lingering outside his doorway and then shuffling down to the patio to smoke.

The confrontational conversation he'd anticipated had never come, and for some reason, he did not suspect it would. Each bookman had his guesses, his suspicions, his facts, his stories. These would most probably never see verbal light, but undoubtedly would find their way into writings as duty demanded. What he wanted to think about right now was the gray extremities of the heather sky, the glow of freshly illuminated street lamps, the timid introductory noises of evening life, and the wooden shadows of shop fronts.

He was ready for life to be dull again. Quiet, subdued, and calm. He exhaled meditatively in turning to rest his elbow and back where his head and arms had been. With a relaxing inhale he lolled his head back, eyes shut, to regain a view of the village and night blinked.

A slightly gaping mouth obscuring the stars blossomed into a full face smile across smooth, dark skin.

"Hey, bumble bee," Tyki Mikk said quietly. Lavi sat up instantly, turning and backing away from the window, confusion and excitement combating across his features.

"What- what- you-" Tyki swung a leg over the window sill merrily, tongue protruding in concentration, "Tyki…" He beamed amorously as he dusted himself off, placing his hat on the bed and slipping his gloves into a coat pocket.

"Lavi," he answered pleasantly. Awareness caught up and the adolescent bolted into a frenzy,

"Oh my God, if jiji sees you- I can't believe you'd ever- or the others! Kanda'll kill you on the spot- and you climbed up the side of the building, what were you?- why would you?- I thought you didn't- I thought we'd never- How'd you- why'd you-"

"Ssshhh…" Tyki pressed a single finger to the spazzing lips. "Borboleta voadora, Borboleta fugidia." Lavi fell willingly silent with the repetition of their parting verse. The Noah lit up and rested his cigarette outside the window, gazing warmly at the junior bookman, who's practical curiosity finally dominated his initial emotions.

"How'd you find me?" Tyki's eyebrows rose in surprise and he removed the smoke from his mouth, waving the ash into the street as he angled his head into the room and extended a spread hand towards Lavi.

"Oli oli oxen free," a teeze erupted from the redhead's stomach and flitted innocently to the beckoning appendage before sinking fluidly into the other body. "They have homing capabilities," he continued blithely, returning his cigarette to its perch.

"And why did you come?" Lavi bravely barreled forward, secretly hoping he already knew this answer.

"I love you," Tyki replied simply, continuing his smoking as though this information was nothing remarkable. "I love you to death," he cast a familiar gilded eye back towards the frozen exorcist, "I think we're soul mates."

For the second time that day the Noah turned away from someone across the room from him only to find them upon him before he'd finished his adjustment in position. He laughed quietly, abandoning the smoke to return the embrace of the intensely delighted Lavi.

"Really?"

"Really, really."

"Are you serious?"

"Serious, serious."

"Really truly?" Tyki raised a hand to cup the grinning face.

"Yes."

"Soul mates? You're so cheesy," Lavi buried his face in the pearly shirt relentlessly, hugging the Noah tightly.

"I'm not cheesy," Tyki answered reproachfully, chin resting on the nest of vibrant red fluff, "I'm Portuguese, we believe in such things."

He held Lavi at arms length, sliding the cigarette onto the windowsill with one hand. "This is why I'm here, this is what I said to you because I would not let you go. This is why I dropped the bomb at the very first," he raised an index finger and Lavi listened attentively.

"Flying butterfly, elusive butterfly, she may only live one day," he rocked Lavi gently in time to the verse, "she may only live one hour," he leaned their foreheads together and closed his eyes, bringing his lips near to Lavi's, expressively raising his eyebrows before breathing,

"Oh! But what a happy hour!"


End file.
